During the war, thousands of company employees volunteered for the front, and their places at the machines were taken by their wives, sisters, and children. The workshops were quickly converted to production of military equipment. Machines were installed without foundations, on joists that allowed them to be dismantled and rearranged within a few hours. Even when the Fascist troops were already in the outskirts of Rostov, the workers remained at the machines producing equipment for the war effort and at the same time erected defensive structures and bomb shelters.
Equipment dismantling and shipping to Tashkent began on October 13, 1941. The evacuation was an enormous undertaking. The entire enterprise area turned into a continuous stream of moving loads delivered by winches, travelling rolls and aircrafts. More than 3,500 railway cars were used to evacuate the equipment. On October 19, 1941, the last group of employees headed by Director M. M. Titarenko left for Central Asia.
Sites in different areas of Tashkent were provided to accommodate Rostselmash. The sites proved to be insufficient, and some of the equipment had to be sent to Chirchik, 60 km from Tashkent. Thus, four Rostselmash branches were established in Uzbekistan, three in Tashkent and one in Chirchik.
On the 33rd day after the equipment arrived in Tashkent, the enterprise started to produce products for the war effort. Machines and conveyors were installed in the open air or in hastily adapted sheds and other buildings. On the 35th day of continuous operation, there was the first hot-metal tapping. The workshops have grown in a three months time on an empty space of 12 thousand square meters. Rostselmash produced 82 mm mine cases, warheads for missile shells (Katyusha), 50 kg, 100 kg and 250 kg high-explosive bombs for the front line. After the Great Patriotic War, the equipment and remaining Rostselmash staff were employed to establish Tashtekstilmash plant in Tashkent, becoming a leading company in Uzbekistan. In Chirchik, there is a separate steel works supplying metal to nearly the entire Uzbekistan.